After another awesome week of summer shredding Session 8 and Windells Camp, 2014 has come to an end. Despite being the final session, the good times were in no short supply. With the help of the team takeover sponsors Capita Snowboards and Stept productions, this week was one to remember!

Capita seemed to have brought out the entire crew in coordination with “Campita”, the team’s annual campout; Scott Stevens, Dan Brisse, Mike Rav, Brandon Cocard, Phil Jaques, (and many others) were all in attendance catching the warm summer rays on hill before retiring to the “Campita” home base to cool down in the woods. The crew took the opportunity to show the campers a thing or two during their handplant and rail clinics, giving the campers a chance to learn something new and win some cool schwag in the process.

R: Mike Rav P: Erik Hoffman

Coming out in full force was the Stept productions crew bringing Shay Flynn, Cam Riley, Nick and Alex Martini to partake in a week of summer fun. After the half-hour lunch break on two separate days, Stept held a Chinese downhill from the top of Palmer to the bottom of the Windells park, where just about everyone involved walked away with a custom Stept product. The crew was hard at work stacking shots throughout the park all week, for which we will be sure to see the turnout in the next session’s edit.

R: Alex Martini P: Gill Montgomery

Windells hosted their second annual skate contest on campus this week “Narly by Nature” where skaters from all over came together to take their shot at the prize purse. Amongst the madness Danny Tumia managed to walk off with the open division title, becoming the reigning champion and walking away with a cool $1,000.

R: Andy Adams P: Erik Hoffman

With the rising temperatures the digger crew had their work cut out for them yet again, but managed to pull off one of the best late season parks somehow packing as much variety as previous Sessions.

Camp is officially over for this summer season! Thank you for everyone who came up and enjoyed the “Funnest” Place on earth.

It’s crunch time people, and we are only 20 days away from the start of Summer 2014! For those of you that are on the fence, maybe deciding if you should do lacrosse camp or come to Windells, we made the decision a little easier for you. From May 21 – 31, everyone who registers for camp and pays in full will get a FREE Windells backpack shipped to their house! That’s right! Just enter the code, make the full payment, and lock in a week at the “funnest” place on earth to receive your free limited edition Dakine X Windells colab backpack. Hurry!! This offer is only valid to the first 50 customers so get on it.

Code: FREEBAG14

* Bags will be shipped only within the US to the address listed on the account holder’s profile. For international campers, backpacks can be picked up on Arrival Day at the check-in table.

Congratulations on qualifying for the upcoming Olympics, Trevor Jacob! Go fast, bud! The XXII Olympic Winter Games begin February 7th. Keep an eye out for your favorite Windells guest pros and Team Takeover athletes!

Lib Tech’s Downtown Throwdown – Fueled by Monster Energy is back for it’s 8th year…and it’s coming to a new city…Minneapolis!

New city, new features, next level shredding and over $20K in prize money…it’s gonna be BANANAS!

The DTTD has grown from a local DIY project to the most anticipated and respected urban snowboarding event in the world, while entertaining tens of thousands of people over the past seven years in Seattle and San Francisco. This year, event creators Snowboy Productions talked with sponsors and riders about the idea of bringing the DTTD to other amazing cities and the overwhelming response was Minneapolis, MN. Minneapolis has been a hotbed of urban snowboarding for a long time with spots and riders featured in snowboarding videos all around the world. “It’s also a nice nod to Minneapolis-based riders like Zac Marben, Jonas & Jordan Michilot and Jake Olsen-Elm who competed in the early years and have really supported the event” said Snowboy Productions & Lib Tech’s Krush Kulesza. “We’ve had an amazing run in Seattle and San Francisco, but we’re really stoked on the opportunity to move it around each year and really keep it fresh.”

The DTTD has always set itself apart from other events by choosing riders who focus on filming video parts and are out changing the face of urban snowboarding, and this year’s line-up definitely backs that up. Forest Bailey, Dylan Thompson, Ted Borland, Brandon Hobush, Nial Romanek, Andrew Brewer, Johnny Lazz, Ryan Paul, Jaeger Bailey, Spencer Shubert and Dylan Alito are among the 25 riders chasing over $20,000 in giant cardboard I.O.U.’s.

One of these riders will also have the bragging rights of joining a very heavy list of past DTTD winners including Dan Brisse, Jed Anderson (twice), Nick Visconti, Ryan Paul, Brandon Hobush (twice), Dylan Alito and Nial Romanek.

In addition to a new host city, this year’s DTTD will debut it’s largest course to date by adding an entirely new level/section for a total of nine features on three different levels . “The Downtown Throwdown is a ‘snowboarding’ event, not a ‘rail jam’, and adding the third level to the course this year is going to really drive that home!” said Think Thank owner and Lib Tech Ripper Jesse Burtner, who along with Crab Grab’s Preston Strout will once again be tickling your ears with knowledge and humor as they emcee the event.

To continue the name dropping, DWD owner and longtime DTTD supporter Sean Genovese will once again head-up our judgeMENTAL team that will include two Minneapolis snowboarding icons, Arnette’s Zac Marben and Monster Energy’s Ethan Deiss.

Add in sponsor booths with prizes and gear to check out, raffles for snowboards and other great prizes, the first ever Minneapolis offering of Cobra Dogs and an afterparty from Arnette to make this THE event of the upcoming season! So get to 3rd & Hennepin around noon on October 19, 2013 to witness the next chapter in this FREE event!

Huge thanks to Lib Tech, Monster Energy, Arnette, Snowboarder Magazine, Cal-Surf, Diecutstickers.com, Windells, The House Boardshop, Cobra Dogs, City Pages and the city of Minneapolis for making it all possible.

SPENCER WATKINS!

Spencer, you won this pack of rad Windells gear. Stoked to read so many great comments. Everyone else, see you for the next Team Takeover Thursday!

Special shout out goes to Mark Bryan Richardson for enthusiasm and strangeness. Mark left this comment on our facebook page, “If u give this to me i will cover my self up in vaseline and pretend im a slug.” I think we just decided on a new camp activity.

So, we’ve been throwing around the phrase “Team Takeover Sessions” a lot on the blog recently, and if you haven’t been to camp the last few summers since we started inviting pro riders to take over sessions, you may not be familiar with exactly what this means. Plus, Team Takeover is the brand spanking new title for these sessions for 2012.

So, we’ll start at the beginning. What is a Team Takeover Session? Well, a Team Takeover Session (you’re going to read this phrase a lot) happens every session at snowboard and ski camp during the summer. A group of pro snowboarders takes over snowboard camp for the week, while a group of pro skiers takes over ski camp. The riders arrive the same day as the campers and come to orientation to introduce themselves. Starting day 1 on hill, the fun really begins! [Read more…]

Well, Mother Nature took it upon herself to be a little too gnarly yesterday. With a mix of rain, sun, indoor, and outdoor skating, the 1st Annual Narly By Nature skate contest was definitely wild. Right at the 5pm start time, the sky opened up and poured down rain on the beautiful, once dry concrete. But! Not to worry. Plan B made for a solid alternative. Luckily at Windells, we have outdoor, we have indoor, we got it all. They don’t call this the “funnest” place on earth for nothing. [Read more…]

We’ll be back next week for another Team Takeover Thursday with one of our pro teams for Summer 2012! Meanwhile, check out the snowboard and ski Team Takeover Schedules and get registered for your session at Windells!

The trees are blooming, the bugs are buzzing, and it sure does feel like summer is on the way. Now, obviously we are excited for the warm weather and loads of sunshine, but most importantly we are counting down the days until the Surface team takes over campus! The crew is gearing up for another amazing summer of bluebird laps and tie-dye mayhem. After checking in with the team, it’s safe to say that these guys will be turning camp upside down and delivering the goods during Session 4. Don’t forget to comment and answer the question at the bottom of this post for a chance to win some serious swag!